Victoria to Neah Bay

We left Victoria Friday morning for Neah Bay. We had been tracking the offshore weather for days and had seen a series of small fronts kiss the coast. Not enough to result in really bad weather in Victoria (e.g., some minor rain), but enough to get the winds and waves hopping along the coast. We timed our departure to take advantage of an ebbing tidal current through Juan de Fuca. We found that Race Passage (next to Race Rocks) was aptly named: our GPS showed 10.1 knotts over ground. Sweet! We'd get there early.



We took advantage of the good conditions to get fully ready for the bad. Lo is shown here testing our jacklines, which are what we clip into with our safety harnesses to ensure that we don’t accidentally fall overboard. We also tested the rigging for our new running backstays and the staysail. We were making good time until we ran into the 110’ US Coast Guard Cutter “Cuttyhunk.”




We had seen them escorting a large military transport ship out the strait earlier. They were on their way back to Port Angeles when they intercepted us. A quick summation of the situation ruled out applying any moves from my Master and Commander repertoire. We gave them our vitals over the radio, and waited about a half an hour for them to check us out. We were then informed that they were sending a boarding party, which was just like the movies (except that we had to wait another half hour before showtime)...a zooming zodiac with four guys in kevlar helmets. They were really polite and friendly as they went through their safety check of the vessel and checked out our papers more closely. I learned a new expression: “that’s a Charlie,” which means correct. Lo wishes I’d never heard those words, but I’m finding all kinds of ways to slip them into our conversations. “Would you like some tea?” She asks. You get the picture. We passed our test with flying colours and were on our way.


neah bay

Neah Bay, the main village on the Makaw Reservation, was an interesting place. While there’s not much to do around town, the people were very friendly. On one walk through town, we heard sirens and thought that some catastrophe had occurred. Nope, just the high school basketball team returning from a respectable 8th place in the state tourney. The procession was led by the ambulance, followed by the bus and about 15 cars. Fortunately, it was all good…no rioting. We went out to the fish packing plant and watched the boats getting ready to head out in search of black cod and halibut. We spoke with several locals regarding the weather to confirm our conclusion that a good window was coming. One of the guys at the plant gave us a huge piece of halibut for our dinner. When I gasped at the size of it, he quickly offered more in case it was a “too little” gasp...we had to cut it into two pieces just to fit in our 12” pan. Mmmmmmm, halibut.